GROVECANADA.FM: You need an Export License to move important art from one country to another...

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You need an Export License to move important art from one country to another...

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 1:49 pm Post subject: Printing Limits...

In part 2 of 3, Rembrandt plates, Teri mentions the 2500 limit on printing from those plates...I had to watch again to hear the "in the U.S." stipulation to understand how the justification was given for the loophole...The loophole being some sort of cockamamie premise that by moving countries, the stipulation could be lifted... As an artist, when making stipulations to a collector or client about what they can or cannot do with a work of art, there is a legal assumption that the person buying the work will be subject to the laws of the country where the art resides... The Rembrandt plates were living in the Carolinas, stored in a museum, & later sold, when the owner died...The museum was just holding them to protect them but did not own them... When Park West gallery bought the plates, they were on U.S. soil & had been for 30 years already... Park West was also operating on U.S. soil... As such, any agreements were subject & binding to U.S. laws... Any contract limiting printing from the plates to 2500 prints, is considered absolute... Meaning, if the plates were sold on U.S. soil, that is not the salient point of the contract... The salient point of the contract is that 2500 prints were what was the maximum amount of prints allowed to be printed from those plates... The fact that the term "in the U.S." occurred in the contract, does not invalidate the quantities stipulated... It merely denotes where the contract occurred... If the person or entities selling the plates was implying that more prints could be made off of those plates, by moving the plates to a different country, then the contract would have stipulated such limits or permits... Something to the order of ' if European prints are made you can make another 2500' if 'Asian prints are made you can make another 2500' if 'Canadian prints are made you can make another 2500'...and so on... The absence of those stipulations does Not imply a free for all on behalf of the new owner of the plates... It merely asserts that the TOTAL limit on printings is 2500 for the price that has been paid at point of sale... This is like any copyright agreement with an artist- you can make this many prints for this price... If the new owners of the plates wanted to make more than 2500 prints from those plates they would have to get permissions & pay more money to the previous owners for that right...Not to mention droit de suite 3% back to the Rembrandt estate to keep his heirs in university... No...As an artist, NO...Printing more than 2500 prints from those plates is NOT legal, no matter what country they printed them in... It is still theft from Rembrandt...& this precedent shall NOT be accepted by the artistic community internationally... If the seller says 2500 prints, then 2500 it is...Not more. I don't care if they are in Chinese...no... Unless they get permissions & pay further monies, no... The contract, by stating "in the U.S." does NOT imply that more can be made elsewhere. It merely is stating the location of the agreement... Other agreements for other locations would have had to be negotiated & nailed down before further printing could have been allowed... An absence of paperwork does not constitute license...In fact, quite the opposite... More: http://books.google.ca/books?id=Mub3-VcRLecC&pg=PA115&lpg=PA115&dq=breach+of+contract+by+leaving+the+country&source=bl&ots=xlY6YT-bW9&sig=C9tZSPLp6gmW4gWMrPJynQN2UZo&hl=en&ei=oy4ETMayMoT78Abi97DRDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=breach%20of%20contract%20by%20leaving%20the%20country&f=false The above url, if you cannot see the reference, refers to EXPORT LICENCES in particular... An EXPORT LICENCE is required for art objects of value to a country, that someone wants to export to another country. In order for Park West gallery to move those Rembrandt plates from North Carolina, or Michigan or Minnesota, to Europe or Asia or wherever, to print from them, AN EXPORT LICENCE WOULD HAVE TO BE OBTAINED... This is not to invalidate my earlier statement that any printing above the maximum allowed of 2500 would be considered a BREACH OF CONTRACT by the seller, & as such actionable & sueable by the seller of those plates to PWG. But to say, that even if they tried to move the plates out of the States an export licence(s) would have to have been obtained. That said, if an export licence was NOT obtained, PWG is in violation of American law, if those plates were ever moved off of American soil...